Two dead hens and I can't get over it- advice?

[AHappychick]

if the neck snapped the hen felt no pain and was in a sense dead. even with out the head (cleanly removed from body by axe) the head will gasp and the body will move for a while. its just the way it is as the body still has impulses running through it. I have had culling go bad though and understand, it will haunt you for a few days, but try not to think about it and after a while you wont as much. but I promise the first time you wrung its neck it was gone and felt no pain.

 

[geebs]

that is true... You did the right thing... Mine first deed haunted me.. I cried like a baby and was physically ill over the whole thing... I have gotten better as time goes on.... I don't like that aspect of it... but worse would be ....NO CHICKENS.

 

[OccamsTazer]

Don't beat yourself up about the hen you culled for your friend. You did a kind thing.
I *promise* you, if you felt the neck break, that hen was dead. A bird's nervous system is constructed differently than a mammal's, and they really can be dead and still kick around as if in horrible pain. A chicken's nervous system has a number of what are essentially nodes, called ganglia. When the neck is broken, and the body no longer is getting information from the brain, which causes all of the ganglia to fire at once.
That gives you the kicking and flailing that is so upsetting to most of us.
I assure you, the bird was dead.

 

[Beekissed]

It sounds like you are learning to cope with it and that is a good thing. Killing another creature, especially a harmless one, is always a downer and I don't think anyone becomes desensitized~that term carries a negative connotation...as if the person no longer is sensitive or caring. I prefer to call it becoming stronger, tougher, more capable.

Keeping this type of animal is not for the faint of heart. Chickens are the tastiest prey animal around and everyone wants this easy meal~even us. Who doesn't like KFC extra crispy?

So, if you are going to raise a food animal that is too small and not equipped to defend itself, you are going to have to learn to get tough. Everything dies eventually~great or small. I'm just pleased that you were tough enough to put that bird out of pain and suffering....good for you!

 

[suzannaski]

Thanks for all the insightful advice! "Talking" about it here has been really cathartic, too. I'm so glad BYC is around! I learn so much from all the different posts.
My mum (who always says she doesn't like chickens, but I catch her talking to them all the time) told me we should have more for "safety in numbers" but I think she was trying to say that if we had a bigger flock, I'd get less attached to each one (or she would, who knows). It was cute, either way, and I'm all for more hens.